Will Adobe software be available for ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs?

Yes. At Apple's WWDC 2020 introduction event, the company demonstrated prototype native versions of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom running on the Mac mini DTK developer box.

Recent, 64-bit versions of Adobe applications written for Intel-based Macs generally will work on ARM-based Macs via the Rosetta 2 translation environment with some known issues, but the company now has released native versions of many of their apps for Apple Silicon Macs, as well.

Will Microsoft Office be available for ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs?

Yes. At Apple's WWDC 2020 introduction event, the company ran a demo native version of Microsoft Office on the Mac mini DTK developer box.

Recent 64-bit versions of Microsoft Office written for Intel-based Macs will work on ARM-based Macs via Rosetta 2 with some minor issues, but Microsoft has released versions of Office that natively support Apple Silicon Macs now, too.

Will FileMaker Pro be available for ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs?

Yes. Although Claris had yet to release a formal announcement on its official blog when Apple made its initial annoucement, the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple.

Versions of FileMaker are available for both the macOS and iOS and it was a safe bet that a native version of the software would be available for ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs. The company first shipped native software, FileMaker 19.3, on June 23, 2021.

Although it is possible that some custom solutions that use FileMaker may not work or may need to be modified, the older Intel native Filemaker Pro 19.1.3 works on ARM-based Macs via the Rosetta 2 environment, also.

Will Apple Boot Camp work with ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs?

No. As first specified in an interview with Daring Fireball's always insightful John Gruber, Apple SVP Craig Federighi said:

Actually direct booting -- of course, we couldn't direct boot those [ARM-based] machines to an x86 version of Windows, which is what today's Boot Camp does. But we're not direct booting an alternate operating system.

It is worth noting that it was not possible to direct boot Windows initially on Intel-based Macs, either, and clever hackers were able to do so, perhaps pushing Apple to introduce Boot Camp as a formal solution.

Although there is a version of Windows 10 for ARM processors, Apple's market position is much stronger these days, and the company is unlikely to participate in any efforts to boot Windows on ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs.

Will Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion work with ARM-based Apple Silicon Macs?

Yes. Apple revealed a demo version of Parallels Desktop with Linux running via virtualization on the Mac mini DTK developer box at the WWDC 2020 event. VMWare quickly expressed interest in VMWare Fusion on ARM-based Macs, too.

However, older versions of Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion created for Intel-based Macs will not run on ARM-based Macs via the Rosetta 2 environment.

More recently, though, Parallels has released versions of Parallels Desktop for Mac which support Apple Silicon Macs. VMWare has released VMWare Fusion for Apple Silicon Macs, as well. Microsoft now formally supports Windows running on Apple Silicon Macs via virtualization, also.

Permalink | Report an Error/Typo | Sign Up for Site Update Notices